Since the autumn, I started on a new local syndicate, which is as always an exciting prospect!
Although I have been a member for a number of years and have done the odd social or overnighter, it was now time to knuckle down and get down to business and try and do my best to catch a few fish and try to understand and unlock the secrets that the lake held.
The one thing that made things slightly more difficult on a personal level was once again time.
As a family man with a full time job and a wealth of responsibilities, I only had one overnighter, as per usual, to make things happen, which can be quite difficult. To make matters harder, with the clocks turning back, it meant that I would be turning up in the dark and reeling in at first light in the morning, which to be honest, makes things just a little harder and not really an ideal time to work out a lake and its inhabitants, although, as with most lakes, they do quieten down once Autumn arrives, so I would do my best and see how things progressed.
With angling on such a short window, every opportunity should be made to get to the lake, even if it’s on a quick lap around to see what’s what or who is there, swims that get fished or more importantly, where fish seem to prefer and frequent.
So, whether on a lunchtime recce or detouring to the lake whilst on the commute home from work, the effort would hopefully pay dividends once I was more in touch with its surroundings.
I was confident that by sussing out various area’s around the lake, and by pre-baiting spots, that like every other lake I have fished, the primed area’s would start producing the goods, as the fish fed with gay abandon, without lines, nor pressure and hopefully be reaped every Friday night when I got there.
Bait was an easy choice, CC Moore’s XXX combined with my favourite Northern Special Hook baits; a big fish combination, to rival all others.
Spots were identified and 2 or 3 times a week bait was spread liberally, over various spots, dependant on other anglers being present, of course.
A few spots took some decent hits of bait but disappointingly, they seemed to attract the other members attentions, after remaining quiet beforehand, so I needed to be more streetwise, and try to stay away from the main swims, do my own thing, make my own destiny in area’s that were largely ignored, but even they started to get noticed, so I just had to get on with it, and try my hardest.
The first night nerves started to tingle whilst driving there on my maiden visit. I wasn’t sure what to expect, who would be there and if i’d be able to get near one of my spots. Unfortunately, it was busy and ended up fishing with a couple of mates, on more of a social aspect, and although my rods remained un-touched, I used it to good effect, grilling my comrades until the early hours for information that would come in useful in months to come!
So, the following week, it was definitely not a social but the actual start of my campaign.
Tactics were my standard XXX / NS snowman attached to my reverse combi-rigs, comprising of a Size 6 ESP Stiff Rigger, 15lb ESP Stiff Bristle Filament / 15lb ESP Camo Sink link fished to a double ring swivel on a Lead-Shed 3oz Flat inline Pear, fished drop off style with 12” of tubing with putty smeared on at 4” intervals with putty pinched above the tubing and sliding back-leads to help keep the line out of harm’s way, and hopefully less conspicuous to the resident fish.
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I pulled up, managed to get on one of my area’s and measured out my lines around 2 bivvy pegs, spaced 12ft apart and flicked out 3 rods to my pre-baited spots.
The night was quiet and as dawn approached the wind dropped off and as the sun began to broach the horizon, my bobbin pulled up which brought a swift rise of the rod and after a short spritely fish of scaley wonderment, which was an upper double sailed into a very welcome net, meaning I was off the mark, to which I was certainly grateful for.
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The following week was more of the same as another upper double scaly which fell to the same traps and similar tactics.
The next week I was planning to visit a southern pit on the mainland for probably my last overseas trip of the year, to which id taken a couple of days holiday from work and Treena had taken leave in order to enable me to go, so I was soon off the ferry and Ringwood bound in search of revenge for the lump I lost on my previous visit a month or so previously.
Things didn’t start well, with lots of anglers, banks closed and not a lot of options so after 2 nights and a firework display that would of woke the dead, I packed up and hot-footed it back to the island to spend my last night at Blackwater.
It was quite a journey, travelling for 3 hours to get back home in the evening, only to stop at home for 5 minutes to collect the carp dog Rascal, before getting back on the road to my other lake.
It was blowing a houlie when I arrived and the lake was empty.
I didn’t get set up until 11pm, knowing I had to leave at 8am so when the rod ripped off in the early hours I was glad I made the effort, I took a few mat shots of another mid-double scaley before flicking the rod back out and then pulling the bag over my head for some much needed sleep, before packing up as soon as I awoke from my heavy slumber.
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I was looking forward to the next week, as I had been baiting an area heavily and hadn’t fished it.
The spot in question needed me to take to the water with my chesties, so with the aid of a a head-torch and a line clip, I flicked 2 rods onto my area and a couple of hours later the rod pulled around and a decent scrap ensued. This felt more like it and I was happy to see that id finally made the acquaintance of one of the better fish, which pulled the scales down to 29lb, and left the next morning well chuffed.
The next week I fished the same spot but things had changed.
Some work had been done to the lake with trees and bushes removed and my spot had been ruined, but after talking with my best buddy Lee, though it was worth a night after the previous weeks efforts.
Just before first light nothing happened, so I grabbed my rods and a net for the last hour as I was sure the fish weren’t there and moved to another spot which proved fruitful when my rod laying on the floor suddenly pulled up tight and a low 20 slipped up which made the effort of packing up and moving in the dark morning worthwhile.
An hour in the right swim being better than a weekend in the wrong one rang true!
The following week seemed like a moment of de-ja-vu as I reeled in the rods whilst it was still dark and moved for my last hour to another spot after spotting some bubbling in another part of the lake and a mirror of just under 20lb had slipped up to the baiting combination.
This became evident on the remaining nights and I if I hadn’t caught by the early morning, I needed to find them and it was damn hard work just fishing overnighters without having to move in the dark before first light the following morning to make it happen, but the effort was always worthwhile and rewarded, which was always nice, so a couple more double figure scaly’s found the net, before I started to wonder why I hadn’t bagged one of the bigger fish.
I had now, over the years taken 3 x 29lb+ fish from the lake and my mind started to wonder if I was getting it wrong.
But, in the back of my mind I knew I was catching week in week out and to my knowledge, nothing over 30 had been caught for a good 5-6 weeks, so it was not as if I was being out-fished. They just didn’t seem to be feeding or at least getting caught, so I came up with a plan.
I devised a new rig based upon my old faithful reverse combi and planned to try it out the following week. I turned up in the dark at about 7pm on a Friday night a week or 2 before Christmas.
The lake was empty and it was raining (like it has done all winter!) and blowing a gale, whilst walking up the lake, I stopped in a swim which I hadn’t fished nor baited, but just had a ‘feeling’ or sixth sense that I should go there. It seemed even more bizarre that I would choose to fish there after id heavily baited another swim and knew I had fish there and feeding, so I plumped for my mind’s gamble and flicked a couple of rods out to there perspective area’s and perched my brolly up away from the battering winds!
I awoke in the early hours to a liner or at least that was what I thought it was, but 10 seconds later, line was ripping from the clutch.
The fight felt like a small fish at first but the longer the fight went on, the bigger it felt.
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Eventually, the fish came to the surface and grounded on the shallow margins as I tried to slip the net around its bulk. It looked as though I had finally broken my milestone, with the chunky mirror pulling the scales down to 31-9, my first 30 from the lake.
I put it in the retainer as daylight wasn’t far away and was surprised as my other rod screamed off just as I was packing up resulting in a 26-5 mirror, so my sixth sense had worked combined with my new tactics; a welcome result with Christmas imminent.
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So, although time, as always, has been very limited, the effort put in has produced lots of lovely fish to the XXX / NS tactics. Let’s hope there is more to come in the new year!
Tight lines
Spencer Wright